By Gary Caffell
A six wicket bag to paceman Stefan Hook-Sporry was something to savour but Wairarapa was still on the end of an innings and 60 run defeat by Taranaki in their Hawkes Cup qualifying round cricket match which finished before midday on Sunday.
A dismal batting effort had Wairarapa all out in their first innings for 69 and while their second innings total of 87-9 (Dane Buchanan did not bat through injury) was s slight improvement it was still far from acceptable at this level.
Just two players made it into double figures when Wairarapa batted first, Daniel Ingham making 15 and Jack Forrester an unbeaten 24, and no partnership was worth more than 17 runs.
The whole innings was over in 32.3 overs.
There was a glimmer of hope that Taranaki too could struggle with the bat when they were 25-2 but while it could never be said they dominated the Wairarapa attack their 226 certainly put them into a strong position.
Hook-Sporry had a heavy workloard for Wairarapa, putting down 21 overs and was rewarded for his persistence with his 6-54. Skipper Gordon Reisima was good support, taking 4-73 from his 19 overs.
Wairarapa had only 11 overs to face before stumps in their second innings but any hope of a revival of fortunes went by the board when they lost three wickets with the score at 18 and another at 19, leaving them to score a further 128 runs yesterday to make Taranaki bat a second time, a target they never looked like achieving.
Reisima, batting at number seven, was the only bright light there, making 34 from 48 balls, including three fours and three sixes.
Any player of the match award would have had to go to Taranaki paceman Ryan Watson who finished the game with 11 wickets, while conceding only 58 runs.
Scoreboard.
WAIRARAPA 69 (Hook-Sporry 7, Burling 4, Speers 0, Price 9, Reisima 1, Lyttle 1, Ingham 15, Buchanan 0, Forrester 24 not out, Fahey 3, Dennes-Wilson 0, extras 5;fall of wickets, 4, 4, 21, 21, 22, 27, 38, 53, 69, 69; Williams 9-5-8-0, McDougall 8-2-16-3, Watson 10.3-2-31-7, Thomas 1-0-1-0, Mills 4-2-10-) and 87-9 (Fahey 8, Burling 5, Speers 0, Price 0, Forrester 11, Lyttle 8, Reisima 34 not out, Ingham 0, Dennes-Wilson 4, Hook-Sporry 11, extras 6; fall of wickets, 18, 18, 18, 19, 35, 41, 47, 51, 87; Watson 11.4-4-27-2, Williams 3-0-10-0, Thomas 6-2-29-2, McDougall 9-3-16-3) lost to TARANAKI 226 (Fleming 63, Robinson 5, Muggeridge 1, McDougall 12, Boshier 56, Fastier 7, Thomas 18, Watson 30, Mills 0, McDougall 4, Marquesa 2 not out, extras 28; fall of wickets, 21, 25, 71, 147, 163, 169, 195, 200, 222, 226; Hook-Sporry 21-2-8-54-6, Ingham 13-3-34-0, Reisima 19-3-73-4, Buchanan 4-0-18-0, Sigvertsen 4-0-22-0) by an innings and 60 runs.
